PEPE'S PIRI PIRI REVIEW

Yooooo so me and Max went to that new piri piri chicken place in town yesterday to get the scoop here is what's going on.

NAME: PEPE'S PIRI PIRI

LOCATION: MARKET STREET NEXT TO SUBWAY

FOOD: The food was everything we expected. The pittas and burgers were literally a carbon copy of Peri Peri's. The add ons were here and there though. They do a bunch of stuff, like the little extras on the menu are great. Everything from humous to corn on the cob to steamed vegetables to potato wedges. The rice they did was bog standard basmati rice with chilli powder on (seems to be a cheap favourite for these places) and my steamed vegetables were diced carrots, green beans and peas clearly from a bag. I was a little disappointed. However, for selection you can't moan, they do everything you can imagine one of these places do. We sampled quite a lot of the menu and it all looked pretty steady. 8/10

ATMOSPHERE: Me and Max were the only ones dining, which we both quite like personally, but it was hard to judge. seats were nicely spaced apart so you are not gonna end up with someone sat too close and the counter is far enough away from the seating area so you don't feel under the nose of the employees. It was pleasant and we both sat and chatted for about 20 minutes after eating without someone clearing our table and in doing so making us feel like we should leave. it was fine. 7/10.

DECOR: It's lovely. Really nicely done up, granted it had just opened that day but it was clean and everything was very new and pristine. All the food came out in little branded containers, (which i'm going to accredit to the decor) and there is even an upstairs seating area. A quick look on their website and this is a franchise with about 8 shops. They know how to open up one of these places and make it look nice. I'll stretch to say it's the nicest chicken shop I've ever been in. 10/10

SERVICE: We were served by these two young white girls, carefully watched over by their boss. First day and all that. They were really nice, although mine made my chicken breast burger into a meal without me asking for it to be a meal, and just served me a coke rather than asking what drink I'd want. I'm sure to have the burger on its own with rice isn't a usual option but the meal (with medium fries and drink) is not what I asked for. I'll put it down to first day jitters. The girls were polite and friendly and brought our food and condiments over to our table rather than making us get up and collect it. They seemed like good people. 7/10 

PRICE: Price for the main meals was slightly more than the other places that do this kind of food. medium meals are £4.99 and things like cheese in a burger is going to set you back 29p, an unnecessary expense. All the little add ons are a little bit more than they need to be. I paid £2.29 for the previously mentioned 'steamed vegetables' which must cost them around 30p, if that. Some of the add ons are acceptable prices, but I wont make the mistake of getting the rice or the vegetables again as they were both too expensive for the quality of the product. 6/10

CONCLUSION: It's definitely a heavyweight in the whole grilled chicken shop franchise thing and I think they are here to stay. Given the location and the range on the menu it's going to be somewhere I go quite a lot and I can't see it getting boring. If you wanna do it properly, be prepared to spend something around £6/7 per visit rather than £4/5 though. If you stay away from the steamed vegetables, and are happy to make that financial sacrifice then you'll really enjoy this place. Pepe's is good news for Leicester city centre lunchers! 38/50